The clinic, opening this week in tony Friendship Heights, specializes in the abortion pill and will be unique for its advertising. Its unabashed approach also reflects a new push to destigmatize the nation’s most controversial medical procedure by talking about it openly and unapologetically.

Plagued by political setbacks in recent years, abortion-rights activists are now seeking to normalize abortion, to put a human face — and in some cases, even a positive spin — on the procedure. At Carafem, staff members plan to greet clients with warm teas, comfortable robes and a matter-of-fact attitude. “We don’t want to talk in hushed tones,” said Carafem president Christopher Purdy. “We use the A-word.”

“It was important for us to try to present an upgraded, almost spa-like feel,” said Melissa S Grant, vice president of health services for the clinic. If the project is successful, Purdy says, he hopes to expand his model to other states. “It’s fresh, it’s modern, it’s clean, it’s caring,” he said. “That’s the brand we’re trying to create.”

On Thursday, Indiana governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law, and some celebrities, politicians, and journalists – including Miley Cyrus, Ashton Kutcher, and Hillary Clinton, just to name a few – are absolutely outraged. They say the law is a license to discriminate against gay people, which is simply not true.

However, they’re making that perception a reality in people’s minds by repeating that exact mantra often and everywhere they can. So calmer, wiser voices are speaking up to clarify just what this is all about. There are primers on RFRA all over the place, for those interested in knowing the truth behind the blowup. Here’s the Weekly Standard: “Is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act really a license to discriminate against gay people?”

No. Stanford law professor Michael McConnell, a former appellate court judge, tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email: “In the decades that states have had RFRA statutes, no business has been given the right to discriminate against gay customers, or anyone else.”

It’s actually the opposite. It’s a protection of individuals, business owners, others, from being discriminated against for conducting their business according to their beliefs.

Murray, a Democrat who is openly gay, issued his ban via executive order over the weekend, and Inslee issued his Monday afternoon. “I find Indiana’s new law disturbing, particularly at a time when more and more states and people in America are embracing civil rights for everyone," Inslee said in a statement. "Washington will join other states and cities in opposing this law and I will impose an administration-wide ban on state-funded travel to Indiana."

Murray says the law doesn't reflect Seattle residents’ values. He also has told all city departments to review their contracts to see whether Seattle is doing business with any company whose headquarters is in Indiana. “Seattleites know that discrimination has no place in our city,” he said in a statement. “That’s just equality 101.” The primary concern is that the law might allow a business to discriminate against gay residents, such as a baker being allowed refuse an order from a gay couple for a wedding cake.

But state lawmakers and Republican Governor Mike Pence have been defending and trying to explain the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ever since the governor signed it into law on Thursday. They note that then-President Bill Clinton in 1993 signed similar federal legislation into law, and 19 other states also have similar policies. However, the Indiana law differs in several ways, primarily in that it allows a business to assert a right to "the free exercise of religion."

Our then Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, also affirmed "there is no stronger bond than that between mother and child". Both leaders apologised for a misguided policy that had broken this primal bond and caused ongoing grief to mothers and children.

How hypocritical, then, that last Thursday a new policy to break that primal bond was scheduled to come before the Senate. It was a policy that would institute marriage without a woman, and so create families without a mother. Senator David Leyonhjelm’s Freedom to Marry Bill 2014 was withdrawn from the Senate at the last minute, in the face of two million emails urging the Government to keep marriage between man and woman.

The Bill will return and, if passed, would be a coldly calculated decision to abolish a mother from the lives of any future children created within two-man ‘marriage’. The most primal and sacred bond would be broken again. Gay parent Doug Mainwaring wrote in The Public Discourse that redefining marriage “might once again invite epic disaster for children, whose stories will emerge only as they become adults.”

Those stories are now emerging. Heather Barwick, raised in a loving same-sex household, made international headlines when she wrote this month in The Federalist, “Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn’t matter. That it’s all the same. But it’s not. A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting.”

Even bigger international headlines, and absurd accusations of homophobia, were made when gay fashion icons Dolce and Gabbana told Panorama magazine this month, "We oppose gay adoptions… You are born to a mother and a father – or at least that’s how it should be… Life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.” In support of their comments, six adults raised in same-sex households wrote in an open letter, “Every human being has a mother and a father, and to cut either from a child’s life is to rob the child of dignity, humanity, and equality”.

There were four resolutions on Israel. And one on North Korea - a country that is home to government policies of torture, starvation, enslavement, rape, disappearances, and murder – to name just some of its crimes against humanity.

Four resolutions on Israel. And one on Syria. Where the death toll of four years of war is 100,000 civilians, ten million people are displaced, and barrel bombs containing chemical agents like chlorine gas are back in action.

Four resolutions on Israel. And one on Iran. Where there is no rule of law, no free elections, no freedom of speech, corruption is endemic, protestors are jailed and tortured, religious minorities are persecuted, and pedophilia is state-run. At last count, in 2012 Iranian courts ordered more than 30,000 girls ages 14 and under to be “married.” And what did that one resolution on Iran say? Co-sponsored by the United States, it was labelled a “short procedural text,” consisting of just three operative paragraphs that contained not a single condemnation of Iran.

The Israel resolutions, on the other hand, were full of “demands,” “condemns,” “expresses grave concern,” and “deplores” – along with orders to “cease immediately” a long list of alleged human rights violations. Ninety percent of states – inhabited by 6.6 billion people – got no mention at all. Countries like China, Qatar, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. For the UN, there was not one human rights violation worthy of mention by any of these human rights horror shows.

In an address to the Arab League summit in Egypt on Saturday, Mr Putin spoke against foreign intervention in countries’ internal disputes and spoke of the role Russia can play in diplomatic channels. While Russia openly opposes the stance of US-backed Israel on the Gaza crisis, its position in the Middle East is complicated. Mr Putin is one of Iran’s key allies, but as he spoke on Saturday the core nations of the Arab League engaged in air strikes on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

His attempts to urge a peaceful solution in Yemen haven’t had much of an immediate impact – on Sunday, the Arab League agreed to the creation of a joint military force comprised of around 40,000 elite troops to resolve the future “challenges” of the Middle East. As one of the “Quartet” entities involved in Middle East peace negotiations, Russia has played a key role in talks about the fallout of last year’s Gaza crisis.

Analysts expect crude prices to command a new “geo-political premium” as it becomes clear that Saudi Arabia has lost control over the Yemen peninsular and faces a failed state on its 1,800 km southern border, where Al Qaeda can operate with near impunity. Over 3.8 million barrels a day (b/d) pass through the 18-mile Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen, one of the world's key choke points for crude oil supply.

While there is little likelihood of disruption to tanker traffic, Saudi Arabia is increasingly threatened by Shiite or Jihadi enemies of different kinds. Shiite Houthi rebels have already seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and pose a potential contagion risk for aggrieved Shia minorities across the Saudi border in the kingdom’s Southwest pocket, never an area friendly to the ruling Wahhabi dynasty in Riyadh.

The Saudis face an impossible dilemma. The harder they hit the Houthis, the greater the danger of a power vacuum that can only benefit Al Qaeda and Islamic State groupings that already control central Yemen. They are among the most lethal of the various Al Qaeda franchises. A cell from that area was responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

Any sign that Saudi Arabia is becoming embroiled in “Vietnam-style” attrition in Yemen or that it cannot safely secure its porous northern and southern borders against Al-Qaeda/ISIS could upset the fragile psychology of the world’s oil markets in a heart-beat.

"We're still in a position where our message is... that the next move in interest rates is going to be up," Mr Carney said during a panel discussion at a Bundesbank conference in Frankfurt. Mr Haldane surprised investors last week when he said a recent sharp slowdown in inflation meant the bank was as likely as not to cut rates - a view that had been previously rejected by Mr Carney. Several other top policymakers at the BoE have left Mr Haldane looking isolated in recent days.

During the exercises, which will take place over the summer, Special Forces from various branches of the military will work with local law-enforcement in scenarios that, to critics at least, sound suspiciously like they are aimed at subduing rebellious American civilians and states amid a civil war or large-scale unrest. The federal government issued a response dismissing the concerns and saying that the training is to help US forces prepare for overseas missions, but not everyone is convinced.

Citing other recently leaked U.S military documents such as “FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations” about interning American civilians in camps, using “psyops” (psychological operations) on those detainees to affect their views, and more, David Hodges with the Common Sense Show said the drill is “undoubtedly the most frightening thing to occur on American soil since the Civil War.” In a widely re-published article about the training program, he said it could be “conclusively stated” that the drill was really about “preparing for a Red, White and Blue invasion.”

“This is a massive rehearsal for martial law implementation as well as implementing the proverbial and much rumored Red and Blue List and the “snatch and grab” extractions of key resistance figures from the Independent Media as well as uncooperative political figures,” Hodges added. “The various provisions of Jade Helm make it clear just how dangerous this drill truly is.”

Jade Helm drill may well just be nothing more than training US forces for “overseas missions,” as officials claim. However, considering the known details of the exercise and the accelerating anti-constitutional lawlessness of the federal government, it is hardly unreasonable to express concerns. In fact, anybody who is not concerned by the current state of US affairs is simply not paying attention.

The boyish rookie politician was regaled with the carpet treatment from his host Angela Merkel. Mr Tsipras strode alongside his counterpart inspecting an austere guard of honour lined outside Berlin's Federal chancellery building, in a ceremony laced with more than a hint of the military past of Europe's once mighty nation.

It was an abrupt change of scene for the 40-year-old, who flew into the German capital in standard class seating on a commercial plane from Athens. But the military honours did nothing to cow Mr Tsipras from repeating a demand that has catalysed the breakdown in trust between the debtor state and Europe's largest creditor: that Germany revisits the episode of its former might and compensate his country for crimes committed by the Third Reich.

In front of the world's media, the Greek premier stood by Ms Merkel and maintained his government would pursue the "moral" question of Second World War reparations. Ms Merkel however was categorical in her refusal to re-open old wounds. It is an issue which has fanned the flames of a protracted and increasingly ugly series of threats and counter-threats that have dogged talks between the two sides.

Greece's paymasters are demanding the fast implementation of legislation to release the bail-out cash. They have yet to see much in the way of action. To add insult to perceived injury, the only concrete measures to have been put before the Greek parliament are a raft of "anti-poverty" programmes designed to tackle the country's humanitarian crisis. Steps towards privatising key national assets, revamping labour laws, and cutting generous state pensions have remained conspicuously absent. The hiatus has exasperated Greece's creditors.

"The new government has gambled away a lot of trust," was the verdict of Germany's hawkish Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann. Ireland's premier, Enda Kenny was equally as damning ahead of an EU summit earlier this month: "They need to face up to their responsibilities". The spectre of an "accidental" Greek exit - or "Grexident" - now looms over the eurozone.

“Caring for the marginalized and the poor; advancing economic opportunity for all; serving as good stewards of the environment; protecting religious minorities and promoting religious freedom around the world; and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities,” are on the agenda, according to the White House.

The announcement comes at a time when Obama is facing political opposition in most of those arenas. His signature healthcare legislation, the Affordable Care Act, is awaiting a potential death-knell from the Supreme Court. Obama’s executive immigration actions are also being tested in the courts, after legislators tried to reverse them earlier this year.

Though Francis might not be able to help in the courts (most of those cases will occur in the next few months), he might be able to give the president some strength on the environment. Obama recently retreated from a fight on fracking, but is aiming for a far-reaching global climate deal at the UN in December. The deal, if reached, could cement the president’s environmental legacy, which has been under fire from activists.

“There are many of them. They refuse to deny Jesus and they endure insult and injury with dignity," he said. Francis has at times expressed alarm over the rise of Islamic State militants and the plight of Christians in the Middle East. He has said that the international community would be justified in using military force as a last resort to stop "unjust aggression" but that it should not be up to a single nation to decide how to intervene in the conflict.

“Shut out from labor markets, plied with generous social welfare payments and allowed to cultivate beliefs and cultural practices inimical to democracy, many of these immigrants despise their new homes, and find the religious commitment and certainty of radical Islam an attractive alternative,” writes Bruce Thornton of the Hoover Institution. “Some turn to terrorism,” like the French-Algerian brothers who carried out the slaughter at the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“Such violence,” adds Thornton, “along with cultural practices like honor killings, forced marriages and polygamy… are stoking a political backlash against Muslims.” Populist parties are surging — the UK Independence Party in Britain, the National Front in France and now the “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident,” PEGIDA, in Germany. These parties will soon be strong enough to enter governments, impose restrictions on immigration and demand assimilation. Then the cultural conflicts may turn violent.

Christianity gave Europe its faith, identity, purpose and will to conquer and convert the world. Christianity created Europe. And the death of Christianity leaves the continent with no unifying principle save a watery commitment to democracy and la dolce vita. From Marine Le Pen’s France to Putin’s Russia, nationalism and patriotism are surging across Europe because peoples, deprived of or disbelieving in the old faith, want a new faith to give meaning, purpose, vitality to their lives, something to live for, fight for, die for.

Countless millions of Muslims have found in their old faith their new faith. And the descendants of fallen-away European Christians of the 19th and 20th centuries are finding their new faith in old tribal and national identities. Less and less does multiculturalism look like the wave of the future.

Tech firms should consider the impact sophisticated encryption software has on law enforcement, he said. A spokesman for TechUK, the UK's technology trade association, said: "With the right resources and cooperation between the security agencies and technology companies, alongside a clear legal framework for that cooperation, we can ensure both national security and economic security are upheld."

Mr Wainwright said that in most current investigations the use of encrypted communications was found to be central to the way terrorists operated. "It's become perhaps the biggest problem for the police and the security service authorities in dealing with the threats from terrorism," he explained.

"It's changed the very nature of counter-terrorist work from one that has been traditionally reliant on having good monitoring capability of communications to one that essentially doesn't provide that anymore." Mr Wainwright, whose organisation supports police forces in Europe, said terrorists were exploiting the "dark net", where users can go online anonymously, away from the gaze of police and security services.

The Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) said that while the bloc was likely to stay together in the medium term, with Greece remaining in the eurozone, the single currency could not survive if countries did not move closer together. Persistently weak growth in the eurozone had led to voter unrest and the rise of populist parties such as Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, and Front National in France, said PIMCO managing directors Andrew Bosomworth and Mike Amey.

"The lesson from history is that the status quo we have now is not a tenable structure," said Mr Bosomworth. "There's no historical precedent that this sort of structure, which is centralised monetary policy, decentralised fiscal policy, can last over multiple decades." PIMCO said the rise of populist parties demonstrated how uneasy some people had become about the euro. "Persistently low growth manifests itself in a lack of support in the common currency, so then it leads to the rise to power of political parties that want to end it," said Mr Bosomworth.